So after hunting through all the petsmarts/cos, lps, and lfs in my area (sadly, there isn't much) I had finally broke down and decided to buy the plants I was looking for online.
I would have preferred buying the plants when I can see them right in front of me and can watch the sales person pack up for me, but no suck luck. Instead, I went to ebay (since I already had an account and thought it would be easiest). I found a buyer that had the little ribbon saying they were a "top-rated seller" and decided to by my frogbit and java moss from them. Now I am both excited and nervous about getting them, haha.

I can't wait to see how it'll look in my new tank, I really think they're the thing it's been lacking. However, the seller warned about the possibility of having snails and duckweed with my plants. The snails I can handle, I wouldn't mind getting rid of them, but the duckweed I'm nervous about. Would I be able to just pick them out of my new plants before adding them to my aquarium? Or would there be little microscopic seed-like stuff which makes it impossible to ever be completely duckweed-free?

So after hunting through all the petsmarts/cos, lps, and lfs in my area (sadly, there isn't much) I had finally broke down and decided to buy the plants I was looking for online.
I would have preferred buying the plants when I can see them right in front of me and can watch the sales person pack up for me, but no suck luck. Instead, I went to ebay (since I already had an account and thought it would be easiest). I found a buyer that had the little ribbon saying they were a "top-rated seller" and decided to by my frogbit and java moss from them. Now I am both excited and nervous about getting them, haha.

I can't wait to see how it'll look in my new tank, I really think they're the thing it's been lacking. However, the seller warned about the possibility of having snails and duckweed with my plants. The snails I can handle, I wouldn't mind getting rid of them, but the duckweed I'm nervous about. Would I be able to just pick them out of my new plants before adding them to my aquarium? Or would there be little microscopic seed-like stuff which makes it impossible to ever be completely duckweed-free?

really? then that's good :)
I've already spotted a snail or 2 with the the few plants I bought from a lfs, so I already know I'll need to deal with that soon. Having a few more snails coming in the mail won't bother me.
If I do get some duckweed with my order, my brother's goldfish will be in for a treat :)

I haven't had great experiences with e-bay as far as plants go.. I learned to read the negative feedback for a seller, even if they are rated 98% - one Taiwan place was extremely shoddy and rude, and the plants were not only dead but some were seized by customs - he'd put the plants, knowing they were illegal to import here (I didn't! but do now..), in a bag marked 'soft toy'. Really dodgy, and yet his rating is 98% because he clearly bullies people into not leaving negative feedback.

I'm sure not all companies are like that. But apart from one reliable Aussie company, I choose to stick to local fishkeeping forums, and advertise for what I need or answer ads. So far, I have saved several hundreds of dollars on plants. Large anubias that costs $50 online cost maybe $5, included in a plant pack with tons of extras, etc. Lots of snails from those, but I don't mind those - they tend die off in tannin-y tanks and are easily squished anyway.

There were only 4 negative comments for this seller (yes I did look before purchasing). 3 of them were for fish, which were DOA and, according to the seller's comments, thoes buyers hadn't contacted the seller before leaving feedback because he/she would have refunded or replaced. One had complained about a plant, but it was only about the snails and duckweed, which they would be warned about if they took the time to read through the seller's description. There was a neutral rating about receiving dead plants but then said there was a heat wave so they had expected it. Other neutrals said stuff like "my horse ate it all" (hah!) or that the duckweed they ordered clogged their filter (what did they expect?).

I just ordered plants for the first time, from 2 different online places. So far this has sucked, as almost all my moss was brown because the seller doesn't label his plants as live plants . .. and the other seller . .well I don't know, but here in my complex in Arizona they put packages in a metal mailbox down the street, the box was jammed for one day, and the next day my anacharis was half brown too.

I thought that maybe I just can't order plants in summer in Arizona. I will give it one more try but this time from this place in my SAME town in Arizona. http://www.azgardens.com/
Our UPS is bad here though. Packages have sat in warehouses when we've paid expensive shipping.

Good luck! Sorry to go on my own personal tangent here!

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Edit: I should say that one of the places was recommended by another member here. Maybe they don't live in the desert! I was so disappointed to have all this dead java moss because I wanted to build a moss wall and moss tunnels.